City of Glasgow--Spirit of the place--Trade and Manufactures--The
Broomielaw--Steam--George's Square--Monuments to Sir Walter Scott,
Sir John Moore, and James Watt--Sketch of the Life of Watt--Glasgow
University--Reminiscences--Brougham--Sir D. K. Sandford--Professor
Nichol and others--High Kirk, or Glasgow Cathedral--Martyrdom of
Jerome Russel and John Kennedy.
Taking the steam-cars from Edinburgh, we arrive at Glasgow, a distance
of forty-four miles, in a couple of hours. As Edinburgh is the
representative of Scottish literature and refinement, Glasgow is the
representative of its commerce and manufactures. It is an immense city,
and contains a prodigious number of inhabitants. At the period of the
Union it had a population of only twelve thousand: since which time it
has doubled this number twelve or thirteen times, and now contains
nearly three hundred thousand inhabitants. It owes this unprecedented
increase to its trade, domestic and foreign, which is almost
unparalleled in its extent. There is probably not a single inland town
in Great Britain, with the exception of London, which can show such a
shipping list.
Glasgow has ever been distinguished for its mechanical ingenuity, its
industry and enterprise. Its situation doubtless is highly favorable,
but without an intelligent, ingenious and active population, it could
never have reached such a height of prosperity.
But it is not our intention to visit this commercial city as tourists.
There are enough such to describe her agreeable situation, and handsome
public edifices, her long and elegant streets, her beautiful "green,"
and magnificent river. At present we shall not fatigue ourselves with
visiting the Royal Exchange, the Royal Bank, the Tontine and the
Assembly Rooms. Neither shall we trouble our readers to go with us
through Queen street, St. Vincent street, Greenhill Place, or Woodside
Crescent.
It might be worth while however, to look into some of those immense
factories; from which rise innumerable huge chimnies, some of which
overtop the steeples and towers of the churches, and reach far up into
the heavens.[124] Thousands and thousands of spindles and power looms,
with thousands and thousands of human hands and heads are moving there
from morn to night, and from night to morn. What masses of complicated
and beautiful machinery! What prodigious steam-engines, great hearts of
power in the centres of little worlds, giving life energy and motion to
the whole. Here is a single warehouse, as it is called, for the sale of
manufactured goods, containing no less than two hundred clerks. What
piles of silks and shawls, cottons and calicoes! The productions of
Glasgow reach every part of the world. You will find them in India,
China, and the United States, in the wilds of Africa and the jungles of
Burmah, amid the snows of Labrador, and the savannahs of Georgia.
[Footnote 124: One of these chimnies is said to be over 400 feet high.]
But let us go down to the Broomielaw, and take a look at the river
Clyde. That mile of masts, and those immense steamers, plying up and
down the river, connect Glasgow with every part of the British Empire
and the world.
What grand agency has accomplished all this? Steam!--steam, under the
guidance and control of genius and enterprise. The extended prosperity
of Glasgow commenced with the inventions of Watt, the greatest
mechanical genius of the age, and the first man that constructed a
steam-engine of much practical use. Steam has raised all those huge
factories which we have been admiring, and keeps their innumerable
wheels and pistons, spindles and power looms in motion. Steam it is
which brings untold masses of coal and iron from the bowels of the
earth, and converts them into machinery and motive power. Yonder it
comes, rolling and dashing, in a long train of cars and carriages filled
with the produce and population of the land. Here it gives life and
energy to a cotton mill with a thousand looms! There it casts off, from
day to day, the myriads of printed sheets which spread intelligence
through the country. All around us it moves the cranks and pullies,
ropes and wires, wheels and tools, which work such wonders in beating
and grinding, cutting and carving, polishing and dyeing. Steam has added
thousands, nay millions to the annual income of Glasgow. It has
augmented the resources of Great Britain to such an extent that it
saves seventy millions of dollars annually in the matter of motive
power alone! No pen can describe the additions which it has made in
other parts of the world to their manufactures and commerce. It has
brought all nations into more intimate relations, and is yet destined,
in many respects, to revolutionize the world.
Let us go then to George's Square, near the centre of the city, and look
at Chantrey's monument of the man who has done so much to bring about
such a change. The Square contains also a fine monument of Sir Walter
Scott, in the form of a fluted Doric column, about eighty feet high,
surmounted by a colossal statue of "the great magician of the north." He
is represented standing in an easy attitude, with a shepherd's plaid
thrown half around his body. The likeness is said to be remarkably good.
It has that expression of shrewdness, honesty and good nature for which
he was distinguished, but none of that ideal elevation which graces the
countenances of Schiller, Goethe and Shakspeare. Immediately in front of
this monument, is a beautiful pedestrian statue in bronze, by Flaxman,
of Sir John Moore, the subject of Wolfe's exquisite lyric,--
"Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his corpse to the ramparts we hurried,
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot,
O'er the grave where our hero we buried."
Sir John Moore was a citizen of Glasgow, and his townsmen have erected
this statue as expressive of their veneration for his memory. To the
right of this monument, in the south-west angle of the square, you see
in bronze, and of colossal magnitude, the noble figure of James Watt. He
is represented in a sitting posture on a circular pedestal of Aberdeen
granite. It is considered one of the happiest productions of the
distinguished Chantrey. The fine meditative features of the great
inventor are strikingly developed. Watt was born in Greenock, on the
19th of January, 1736, but conducted his experiments chiefly in Glasgow.
He came thither in 1757, first as a mathematical instrument maker to the
college, and subsequently as an engineer. In early life he gave
indications of his peculiar genius, by various little mechanical
contrivances. At the age of six years, he was occasionally found
stretched on the floor, delineating with chalk the lines of a
geometrical problem. At other times he greatly obliged his young
companions by making and repairing their toys; and before he had reached
his seventeenth year he had amused them with the wonders of an
electrical machine of his own construction. He had also instructed
himself by making experiments on the steam of a tea-kettle. He
subsequently stored his mind with the wonders of physics, chemistry and
medicine.
In the University of Glasgow, Watt was employed to fit up the
instruments of the Macfarlane Observatory, which gave him an opportunity
of becoming acquainted with Adam Smith, Joseph Black, and Robert Simson,
names immortal in the scientific annals of Scotland. Here also he formed
an intimacy with John Robinson, then a student at college, and
subsequently the celebrated Dr. Robinson, who first called the attention
of Watt to the subject of steam engines, and threw out the idea of
applying them to steam carriages and other purposes.
The steam-engine had existed before this time, but it was extremely
imperfect, and, moreover, of no great practical use. Hence Mr. Watt was
not, properly speaking, the inventor but the improver of the
steam-engine. Still his improvement was equal to an invention of the
highest order. It made the instrument _available_ for the highest
practical purposes. "He found the crazy machines of Savery and Newcomen
laboring and creaking at our mine heads, and occupying the same rank as
prime movers with the wind-mill and the water-wheel; and by a succession
of _inventions_ and _discoveries_, deduced from the most profound
chemical knowledge, and applied by the most exquisite mechanical skill,
he brought the steam-engine to such a degree of perfection as to stamp
it the most precious gift which man ever bequeathed to his race."[125]
[Footnote 125: Edinburgh Review.]
Watt had "a sore fight of existence," at least in the early part of his
career, and he came near being deprived of the emolument which was his
just due as a benefactor of his race. But he eventually triumphed over
all opposition, retired from business, and continued to reside during
the rest of his life on his estate at Heathfield Soho. He was
exceedingly happy in his domestic relations, though called, in 1804, to
suffer a painful bereavement in the loss of his youngest son Gregory,
who had given high promise of literary and scientific eminence. In 1808
he was elected a corresponding member of the Institute of France; and in
1814, he was nominated by the Academy of Sciences as one of its _eight_
foreign correspondents. In 1819 his health suffered a rapid decline, and
he himself felt that this was his last illness. "Resigned, himself, he
endeavored to make others resigned. He pointed out to his son the topics
of consolation which should occupy his mind; and expressing his sincere
gratitude to Providence for the length of days he had enjoyed, for his
exemption from most of the infirmities of age, and for the serenity and
cheerfulness which marked the close of his life; he expired at
Heathfield on the 25th of August, 1819." He was interred in the parish
church of Handsworth; and over his tomb his son erected an elegant
Gothic chapel, containing a beautiful marble bust by Chantrey. Another
bust by the same artist has been placed in one of the halls of Glasgow
College. A colossal statue of Carrara marble, procured at great expense
by public subscription, graces the recesses of Westminster Abbey.
The most useful memorial of Watt, however, exists in Greenock, in the
form of a large and handsome building for a public library, erected by
his son, in which the citizens have caused to be placed a handsome
marble statue, with an inscription from the pen of Lord Jeffrey. Lord
Brougham concluded an eloquent speech on the merits of Mr. Watt, in the
following striking terms:--"If in old times the temples of false gods
were appropriately filled with the images of men who had carried
devastation over the face of the earth, surely our temples cannot be
more worthily adorned with the likenesses of those whose triumphs have
been splendid indeed, but unattended by sorrow to any--who have achieved
victories, not for one country only, but to enlarge the power and
increase the happiness of the whole human race."
Passing up High Street, we come to an arched gateway, and find ourselves
in a quadrangular court, with antique looking buildings on each side.
Beyond this we come to another quadrangle, also surrounded by buildings
of perhaps more recent date. Passing straight on we reach a handsome
edifice of polished freestone, directly in front of us, and standing
alone, which is nothing less than the Hunterian museum. These then are
the buildings of Glasgow University. Beyond us is the college-green,
ornamented with trees, and divided into two parts by a sluggish stream
which passes through the centre. A number of the students, having laid
aside their scarlet gowns, are playing at football, a violent but
delightful and invigorating exercise.
The University of Glasgow was founded in 1450, in the time of James the
Second. Bishop Turnbull was then in possession of the see, and his
successors were appointed chancellors. The history of the institution
has been various; but, generally speaking, it has enjoyed a high degree
of prosperity. Of late years the number of students has declined, from
what cause we know not. The number, in all the departments, does not
exceed a thousand, whereas, in 1824, when the writer was a student in
Glasgow, there were from fourteen to fifteen hundred. Well does he
remember the enthusiasm with which they welcomed their popular candidate
for rector, Henry Brougham, Esq., M. P., as he was then termed, and the
eager interest with which they listened to his inaugural discourse. Sir
James McIntosh, a fine hearty looking man, with bland expressive eyes,
and two of the sons of Robert Burns, tall, good looking young men, but
with no particular resemblance to their illustrious father, were
present, with others, to grace the occasion. Brougham was in the
maturity of his strength, and the hey-day of his fame. Tall, muscular,
and wiry, with searching visage, dark complexion, keen piercing eyes,
ample forehead, and long outstretched finger, he stood up the very
personification of strength and eloquence. But Brougham has been
frequently described, and we therefore pass him by. The next rector that
was chosen was Thomas Campbell, the poet, once a member of the college,
and one of its most distinguished ornaments. A large portion, if not the
whole of the "Pleasures of Hope" was written while he was a student at
college.
Many distinguished men have been professors in this institution. Among
these Dr. Reid and Dr. Hutcheson, Dr. Simpson and Dr. Moore, Adam Smith,
and Professor Sandford stand pre-eminent. Well does the writer remember
the accomplished, but unfortunate Sandford, and the profound enthusiasm
for the Greek classics which he inspired in his students. He was a son
of the venerable Bishop Sandford, a distinguished graduate of Oxford,
and a man of the highest attainments in Greek and English literature. Of
small stature, he yet possessed an elegant and commanding form. His pale
face, finely chiselled mouth, dark eyes, and marble forehead are before
me now. I hear his clear, musical voice, rolling out, _ore rotundo_, the
resounding periods of Homer, or the energetic lines of Eschylus. No man
ever recited Greek with such enthusiasm and energy. It was a perfect
treat to hear him read the odes of Anacreon or the choral hymns of
Eschylus; to say nothing of his elegant translations, or his fine
critical remarks. He was created a baronet by the government, and bade
fair to be one of the most distinguished and influential literary men in
the country. But he was seduced into party politics, was sent as the
representative of Glasgow to parliament, and failed--failed utterly and
forever; for his want of success in the House of Commons preyed upon his
spirits, and caused his death.
Among the distinguished men now occupying places in this university we
find Mr. Lushington, of Trinity College, Cambridge, professor of Greek,
and Dr. Nichol, author of the popular Lectures on the Wonders of the
Heavens, professor of practical astronomy. Mr. Mylne, professor of moral
philosophy, and Mr. Buchanan, professor of logic, are acute and learned
men.
Leaving the college, we ascend High Street, and after reaching the top
of the hill, a little to the right, we see before us the "High Kirk," or
rather the old cathedral of Glasgow, one of the finest remains of
antiquity, surrounded by a vast church-yard, containing many rich and
ancient monumental tombs, and the mouldering bones of many by-gone
generations. It has a superb crypt, "equalled by none in the
kingdom,"--once used as a place of worship, but now as a place for
burying the dead. The author of Waverley has invested it with additional
interest by making it the scene of a striking incident in Rob Roy. The
whole edifice has a most commanding appearance.
At the north-east end of the cathedral the spot is yet to be seen where
papal bigotry and superstition lighted the fires of religious
persecution. There in the year 1538, Jerome Russel, a member of the
convent of Franciscan friars, in Glasgow, a man of considerable talents,
and John Kennedy, a young man from Ayr, of high family, only about
eighteen years of age, were burned for having embraced the doctrines of
the infant Reformation. They sustained the terrible ordeal through which
they passed to glory with a becoming dignity and fortitude. "This is
your hour and power of darkness," said Russel, "now you sit as judges,
and we are wrongfully condemned, but the day cometh which will clear our
innocency, and you shall see your own blindness to your everlasting
confusion--go on and fulfil the measure of your iniquity." Is it
surprising that the reaction of reform which followed such proceedings
should occasionally have gone to unjustifiable lengths, and that the
people should have torn down "the rookeries," which sheltered those
birds of prey, as the papal tyrants of that day might well be termed?
Never were a nobler or more heroic set of men than the martyrs and
confessors of that trying time! Knox, Melville, and Wishart might be
stern, but they were men of godlike temper and heroic zeal, of whom the
world was not worthy; and whatever poetasters and novelists, sentimental
journalists, and infidel historians may say of them, they will be found
at last, occupying an honored place, at God's right hand.